Things had to get a little heated before they took action, but the Riverside City Council was right to approve a review of the city’s spending – with little oversight and breaches of city policy – of $19.4 million on outside attorneys between fiscal years 2010-14.

A June 3 internal audit, reporting to the city’s Government Affairs Committee, followed up on a request made last year by the council. The audit found a lack of documentation, competitive procedure and contracts defining scope of work. The audit did not discuss how this happened or the extent to which these lapses resulted in the inappropriate use of funds.

Though the City Council quickly put in place safeguards that will prevent such failures going forward, in our view Riverside taxpayers deserved a more substantive review of what went wrong and who was responsible.

After much delay, the council finally brought back the issue for discussion on Tuesday, prompted by a Sept. 3 meeting of the Governmental Affairs Committee, where Councilman Paul Davis noted the issue had been “put off for some time.”

At the council meeting, members of the public made it clear they desired a greater degree of accountability, with many calling out former City Attorney Greg Priamous (now Riverside County counsel) for facilitating the practice of acquiring the services of outside firms without contracts.

The council had several ideas on how to proceed. Councilman Paul Davis suggested sending the issue to the Grand Jury. Councilman Mike Soubirous recommended seeking the services of an attorney to help craft the precise parameters of an investigation to dig into the matter. The rest of the council seemed reluctant to take action, resulting in neither motion being seconded.

“This item has been discussed and no action has come of that,” said Mayor Rusty Bailey before moving on to the next item. Soon after, Mr. Davis forced the council to take a vote, seconding Mr. Soubirous’ motion. “What a double standard this council has,” said Mr. Davis. “[W]e have a city attorney who clearly has violated our policies, clearly, and yet you sit there and don’t want to do anything about it. What a bunch of hypocrites.”

After another round of discussion, the council finally voted 6-1 in support of Mr. Soubirous’ motion, with Councilman John Burnard dissenting. Accountability is critical to keeping government in check. Thus, we applaud the council’s willingness to take a step in the right direction.